Second Dawn
by X-Rage
Summary: A strange island sends the Straw Hat Pirates back in time, to the very day Luffy embarked on his pirate journey. Scattered across East Blue and the Grand Line, they start looking for each other to begin reaching for their dreams anew. GEN, and attempts at humor.


Summary: A strange island sends the Straw Hat Pirates back in time, to the very day Luffy embarked on his pirate journey. Scattered across East Blue and the Grand Line, they start looking for each other to begin reaching for their dreams anew. GEN

Author's Notes: It's no fun when Luffy is the only one who makes it back in time! This way, everyone can be incredibly overpowered together! The rest of the Straw Hat Pirates in the next chapter!

* * *

DAY ONE:

**Luffy**

Luffy went from being asleep to jerking awake the very next moment. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAWN~! That was a great nap!" He exclaimed before taking in his surroundings. "Now, where am I?" Waking up in strange places after an indeterminate amount of time was hardly something new for the narcoleptic boy, who was fast realizing he wasn't in a strange place after all. "Wow, this place looks just like my old room!" He rushed over and grabbed at a Jolly Roger he found on the beach years ago, a symbol of his dream to become the Pirate King. He had left it behind when he left because of course, which pirate lugged someone else's pirate flag around! He stared at it critically before deciding, "Meh, it doesn't look as awesome as mine is." His stomach took this moment to growl its displeasure at the world, and Luffy's reaction was immediate. "SANJI! I'M HUNGRY~" and he stormed out of his Luffy Land to look for his pirate bento supplier, unknown Jolly Roger left behind.

Somehow, he expected Sanji to automatically materialize with his usual grumble for Luffy to wait until proper mealtimes, though he always eventually caved and stuffed Luffy with delicious food. Luffy's expectant grin falls a little when Sanji doesn't appear, and he's faced with Dadan's mountain bandits instead. "Eh?! Where's Sanji! Did you guys lock him up somewhere?"

The bandits were more or less used to Luffy's antics by now, and this wasn't even one of the weirder mornings. Hence, no one bothered paying Luffy's accusation any attention, and the next moment, Dadan had appeared. "What are you screaming about so early in the morning you brat!?"

"Dadan!" Luffy's eyes practically sparkled, "I haven't seen you in awhile!" And he impulsively hugged her. Dadan practically recoiled in horror, "What's wrong with you?!" She screamed at him. "Shishishishishishishishishi, I've just missed you that's all!"

"You haven't even set off on your journey and you're already missing me?!" she said rather incredulously. Even the dense Luffy detected something wrong with this statement. "Huh? But I already left a long time ago!" A vein in Dadan's forehead throbbed. She really hated dealing with a dense brat like Luffy. "What would you be doing here if you already left?!"

Luffy slammed a fist onto a palm as he was suddenly overcome by profound understanding. "You're right! What _am_ I doing here? Did the Bear guy split us all up again?" He enquired in a serious tone, seriously expecting an answer from Dadan.

"Who the heck is the Bear guy?!" Dadan screamed back at him. She had initially felt sad about today since the second of her boys was leaving, but all of that was being washed away by pure irritation. "Oh well," Luffy shrugged it off, "we'll all find each other again anyway. It's not the first time."

"So Dadan, I should probably go find my crew now!" Luffy smiled widely. "It was good seeing you again though!"

Finally saying something she understood and assuming Luffy meant 'crew' as a concept rather than specific people he already met, Dadan shouted, "Then get going already! You've been harping about your birthday and going on your journey for long enough."

"It's my birthday? Oh wow, I'm twenty years old already!" Luffy beamed at Dadan. The surrounding mountain bandits abruptly felt that Luffy had somehow grown even stupider overnight. And he was now setting off alone on his pirate journey! Could he even survive to the next island?!

Another vein in Dadan's forehead throbbed. "Don't you know how to count?! Seventeen comes after sixteen you idiot! You're only seventeen years old!"

"I am?" Luffy expressed his amazement. "So after your 19th birthday you go back to being 17 again? That's strange, it didn't seem to work this way with Zoro…" he contemplated. Dadan opened her mouth to say something, but forced herself to forget about it. If she let herself get caught in Luffy's pace, the conversation would end up spiraling off somewhere strange and she would be doing her blood pressure no favors.

"Either way, you're setting off today aren't you? Get going already before the sky turns dark! God knows you probably need the time to get to the next island." Dadan turned to walk back into her house.

"Eh?" Luffy expressed surprise. "You're not going to send me off again this time?" He pouted a little, "How am I suppose to wave goodbye to you from my boat like that? It's a tradition!"

"Even if Makino and the Mayor are OK with it, We'd probably just scare off the villagers if we came down from the mountain…! So go on and get out of here already!"

Luffy laughed, "All right! It's great seeing you guys again, and thanks for everything!"

"Shut up, you're making me blush!" The thought of Luffy actually leaving was starting to bring tears to her eyes, even though she had been immensely irritated with the dense boy earlier on. "Dadan!" Luffy yelled, "I still hate bandits!" Dadan easily returned an angry "Shut up, brat!" Luffy continued, "But I still like you!"

And that was when the tears started pouring, "Don't be ridiculous! Just hurry up and get out of here! Damn it! What am I to do with you boys!"

On the way to the coast, Luffy ran around the village in glee, hugging various villagers that he hadn't seen in awhile. "Hey, did you guys catch sight of my awesome bounty poster?!"

"Wow, your meat stall hasn't changed one bit! Neither has the taste! It's _almost _as good as Sanji's."

"WHOAA~ This is an awesome mask! I wonder where is Sogeking now…"

His strange comments and references to strangers were all taken in stride, and the villagers merely laughed it off and wished him all the best though one stall owner screamed at Luffy, "Stop stealing my meat!"

At the pier, Luffy stared down at his tiny little boat and meager supplies with an uncharacteristic frown even as someone offered, "Come on Luffy, you can use my old fishing boat instead!" Something was starting to feel off. He had sailed away from his hometown on this tiny boat almost two and a half years ago (and gotten the boat trashed less then 30km away from his home village), yet here it was again.

How had he ended up back home again?

The last thing he remembered was reaching a new island and being disappointed that it hadn't looked remotely dangerous, to the relief of Nami, Usopp and Chopper. Nevertheless, he had launched himself onto the island with all his usual enthusiasm. After that was a complete blank, however.

"Luffy?" someone prodded him in the back. "You've been staring at your boat for awhile. Having regrets?" Laughter rang about as everyone dismissed the impossible notion that Luffy would decide _not_ to leave after all.

"Well it's not the Merry or the Sunny-go," he regarded the tiny boat, "but it'll have to do." At least until he could find his shipwright, or any of his crew, really, to ask what the hell was going on. He was usually just in charge of punching stuff, and he left the smarter things to Robin and the others.

Luffy pushed his boat out to sea and hopped on. "Well, I'm setting off now! I gotta find my crew and figure out what's going on but it's nice seeing everyone again!"

From where she was standing, Makino smiled at the young boy she had a hand in taking care of. "Don't forget your promise to catch up to Ace! Tell him we miss him too!" Someone from behind her asked confusingly, "Who's Ace?" but on his tiny boat, Luffy was extremely startled. "Ace?" he repeated to himself. How could Makino not know that Ace was already… a grief-laden knife slipped itself into his heart. No matter how many years it was after Ace's death, the grief would always be fresh. And with the thought of Ace inevitably came the thought of Sabo. Luffy steeled himself. "Sabo! Ace! I'm setting sail! Don't worry because I'm definitely going to be the PIRATE KING~!"

Anything else the villagers may have said went unnoticed by Luffy, who was using paddles to go further out into the sea. "Ah, today's weather is nice! I hope a cyclone doesn't suddenly emerge out of nowhere…" Years in the Grand Line had taught Luffy about unpredictable weather and the utter reliability of his navigator.

The next moment, a Sea King screeched its way out of the sea and Luffy jerked back in surprise, "Whoa!" he exclaimed, one hand going to his ever present Straw Hat to hold onto it. "I guess it's already … LUNCH TIME! Gomu Gomu no PISTOL!" The Sea King had stood no chance against the original Luffy, and its bones immediately shattered into millions of tiny pieces against a Luffy who unconsciously enhanced his strikes with a little Haki. Luffy, however, frowned at his arm. "Why do I feel weaker than usual?" His stomach chose this moment to growl again. "Ah! It must be because I forgot to eat!" By this time, the carcass of the Sea King had already drifted away and started sinking. Even back at his village, the villagers heard his scream of "NOOOOOOOO! My food!"

Luffy glared at the carcass and stopped himself from diving after the delicious-looking fish before remembering something odd.

"Why did that fish look so familiar?" he wondered blankly.

* * *

**Zoro**

Now, Zoro had also woken up in strange surroundings before. For him, however, there was always something familiar with him when he woke up. So when Zoro opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was not his incredibly dehydrated state, general hunger, or lethargy but the absence of his swords. He immediately let out a growl. Whoever took his swords was definitely going to regret it in the very near future.

Next, Zoro took in his surroundings. Apparently, he was tied to a wooden stake and near him was a sign that said something along the lines that no one was allowed to help him or they would be regarded a criminal with the same offence. Zoro narrowed his eyes. This whole situation seemed suspiciously familiar. Was someone into copycat crimes now? For a pirate of Zoro's stature, they didn't even bother posting any guards on him!

"Roronoa Zoro! How are you doing today?" a detestable voice spoke up as the person swaggered up to Zoro. Zoro stared blankly at the man. Who the heck was this weirdo? "Heeheehee, are you regretting killing my pet wolf yet?" The man grinned wildly, "I told you that my father will hear about it, and now you're stuck here without food or water, HAHAHHAHAH!" He burst out into delighted laughter.

Zoro continued staring blankly at the man. Who the hell was this joker?

Zoro continued frowning before his expression cleared. He supposed it didn't really matter who the guy was. The two men who trailed after the laughing man were dressed in marine uniforms and looked a lot more wary of Zoro, keeping a careful distance away from him.

Placing his feet flat on the ground to raise himself up from his sprawled position, Zoro tugged at the ropes that bound him. When nothing happened, Zoro was shocked for a moment before he tried with greater strength to little avail. Why was he so weak?!

Seeing his struggles, Helmeppo burst out into another bout of delighted laughter, "Your struggles are futile, Roronoa Zoro! You haven't eaten anything in seven days, of course you won't have any strength, HAHA-!" Helmeppo's laughter died an abrupt death as Zoro's right arm came loose with an almighty jerk, Helmeppo's face twisting into an ugly expression of shock. The spoiled brat wouldn't know, but Zoro had used Busoshoku Haki in that last tug. His free arm pulled loose the remaining ropes, but Zoro was not pleased at his freedom at all.

He had spent a year testing his strength against opponents on the Grand Line, and later trained under Mihawk for two incredibly tough years only to fail against rope? Something was definitely off about his physical condition. "Maybe I should look for Chopper…" he mused to himself before dismissing the notion. Zoro firmly believed that ignoring things made them go away.

In the meantime, a horrified Helmeppo could only stare ineffectually at the freed Zoro while his two marine guards fled screaming for reinforcements. While Zoro had yet to possess the reputation he would later hold, he was still a pretty terrifying figure in East Blue. "You," Zoro barked at the frozen man, "Where are my swords and crew members?" If any of his crew were around, they might have expressed their displeasure over how Zoro valued his fellow Straw Hat Pirates lower than his loyal swords.

"How dare you!" Helmeppo finally recovered, "What you're doing is similar to attempting a prison break! Tie yourself back to the post or I'll add another three months to your sentence!" He blustered. Zoro did not like having his questions unanswered. "Swords, and crew," he repeated in a growl. The next moment, however, the guards had returned with reinforcements and one of them shouted, "Roronoa Zoro! For attempting to escape, you will be executed here!"

Regaining even more confidence from the presence of his guards, who were aiming their rifles at Zoro, Helmeppo instantly became smug again as he screamed "Shoot him, now!"

Not being bulletproof like his Captain, Zoro didn't hesitate to grab Helmeppo and hold him out in front of him in one swift movement. A guard yelled out, "He's actually using Helmeppo-sama as a bullet shield!" Helmeppo screamed in shock and fear, "_Don't shoot, don't shoot_!"

Zoro held Helmeppo by the scruff and shook him none too kindly, "Where the hell are my swords and crew members?"

A frightened Helmeppo screamed, "What crew? Since when were you part of a crew? You were alone when you killed my wolf, I don't know about anybody else! Your swords are in my room up in the base!"

And it was at this point that Zoro registered that he was in a marine base, apparently arrested for killing this guy's wolf.

Things were getting even more suspiciously familiar.

Letting go of Helmeppo for one brief moment, Zoro surged forward and quickly disarmed a guard by yanking on his rifle hard and bludgeoning him with it. The other guards recoiled in horror and hastily pulled the triggers, only for a super fast Zoro to start using the rifle as a makeshift sword, "Ittoryu – _**Sanjuroku Pound Ho!" **_Before Helmeppo even knew what was happening, the guards were down on the floor and Zoro was back to shaking him like a misbehaving little kitten (though that might be too cute a descriptor for Helmeppo), while his makeshift rifle sword had actually _shattered into pieces_ from Zoro's powerful attack.

"Swords. Now." Frightened out of his wits, Helmeppo made some pathetic cut-off sounds and waved a frantic finger at one of the buildings, and Zoro took off immediately. He stumbled the first few steps, and slammed Helmeppo into walls a couple of times accidentally. It seemed not only was his body incredibly weak, it wasn't operating at its usual finesse. Helmeppo regained his voice meanwhile, and screamed bloody murder every single time Zoro face planted him into a wall, screamed at all the armed guards to _not shoot no matter what_, screamed for someone to get his father to save him and screamed at Zoro, "That's the wrong way! Don't you understand simple instructions! How can you make a turn when I clearly said go straight!"

"Your directions are too confusing!"

Finally reaching Helmeppo's room after twenty long minutes even though it was a journey that should have taken less than eight, Zoro's eyes lit up in delight at the sight of Wada Ichimonji. Only to die a quick confused death when he caught sight of the remaining two katanas. They weren't unknown to him, but he definitely hadn't wielded them in years.

Three years ago, in fact, in his very first match with Dracule Mihawk.

How had he gotten captured by Marines and ended up here again?

While Zoro was busy thinking, Helmeppo seized the chance and shoved at Zoro's arm, quickly freeing himself and hightailing out of the room, "Guards! Father!" Without his human shield, the guards who had been following Zoro didn't hesitate and, "FIRE!" their squad captain ordered.

All the marines saw, however, was not the sight of Zoro's bullet-ridden body falling to the ground, but flashes of silver as Zoro sliced down bullets heading in his direction, swinging up Wado Ichimonji and the two nameless katanas in swift blurry motions. One of his nameless katanas broke under the assault, but even a broken sword was a deadly weapon in Zoro's hands.

"THAT WAS SO COOL~!" The marines exclaimed in unison as they stared at Zoro with starry awestruck eyes. "Get a hold of yourselves!" shrieked Helmeppo, who found the bullet-slicing act more terrifying than amazing. Zoro looked at the broken katana rather regretfully before sliding it back into its sheath for now. _Nitoryu it is_…

Zoro lowered his head, not even bothering to pay attention to the weak marines in front of him. "I'm starting to have an idea about where I am and how I ended up here, but that doesn't matter to you," he spoke in a deep and intense tone. The marines could only gape collectively at him. What the heck was this guy talking about? In Zoro's eyes flashed a deadly glint, and that was all the marines got before immense wind pressure built as Zoro swung his swords. "Nitoryu – _**Taka Nami**_-!"

Broken bodies slammed into the walls and floors. Helmeppo could only gape as he slid his eyes left and right before foam bubbled out of his mouth and he finally passed out in pure shock and terror.

Zoro on the other hand, frowned at his surroundings and swords. "The walls were suppose to crack under that attack too…" he muttered to himself, displeased. The few marines who were still conscious after that attack could only sweatdrop and continue feigning the dead. _Your attack is already very ridiculous! _They thought.

If Zoro was anyone else, he might have left the marine base without even encountering Axe Hand Morgan by going straight for the exit and nearest restaurant. Unfortunately for Axe Hand Morgan, a combination of plot and Zoro's absurd ability to get lost in any situation sent him deeper into the base and up a few floors until Zoro was personally delivering himself into Morgan's office.

A couple of crows may have croaked when Zoro opened the door fully expecting to see an exit (even though he was quite clearly four floors up) but found an imposing man with a steel jaw, sharpening his axe hand on a whetstone. The Marine Captain didn't appear to be paying Zoro any attention as he continued sharpening his axe.

"Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro…" he eventually intoned. "I expected you to find your way here once I heard you escaped your bindings. Of course someone like you would wish to challenge a great Captain like myself! I am the highest ranking officer on this base, and I will not allow a criminal free reign on my military base." He finally lifted his head, "Come Roronoa-!" and the doorway was empty.

There was silence for two beats before he roared, "Where the hell did he go?!"

In the time it took for Morgan to speak those four sentences, Zoro had already warped time and space and ended up _behind_ Morgan, looking out the large window. "Finally! So there's the exit," and indeed, the gates leading out the marine base could clearly be seen. Once again, Zoro felt he proved that navigating corridors was a poor way of getting to your destination and people should just submit to the simplest and most straightforward way instead.

Drawing Wado Ichimonji, Zoro readied himself, "Ittoryu – _**Daishinkan**_." The force of Zoro's strike split the wall and created a huge shockwave felt by everyone in the marine base, shattering the window and even the _ground_ several metres away. Behind him, the sheer power of Zoro's sword sent Morgan sailing out of his open door and crashing painfully onto the ground.

Zoro was once again immensely displeased by his sword skills. "Wado Ichimonji seems to be obedient enough … but my control over the sword skill seems to have fallen." It seemed Zoro needed to start some serious training again.

The swordsman leapt out of Morgan's completely wrecked office (and really the building itself wasn't doing much better) and started casually walking towards the far wall that bordered the base. Any marine who had thus far escaped a thrashing at Zoro's hands could only stare at him in shock. "Did he just destroy the Captain's office?!"

"Where's the Captain?"

"Was the Captain defeated by Roronoa Zoro?!"

There was silence for a few moments as the conscious marines look at each other before exclaiming, "Yes! We're FREE!"

"We are out of Morgan's control now!"

"LONG LIVE THE MARINES~!"

Zoro paid no attention to any of these comments or the recording Den Den Mushis scattered throughout the marine base. "Was someone talking to me just now?" he mused instead. Shrugging, he turned his attention to more important matters. "Where is the nearest bar…"

* * *

**Nami**

Unlike Zoro and Luffy, Nami woke up with some memories of what happened to the crew on the mysterious island. "Ugh, my head is killing me." Not having a superhuman physique, the side effects of an abrupt dumping of memories lingered. "Where the heck am I?" Nami had woken up in a generic hotel room somewhere, and didn't recognize the place at all.

Stumbling out of the bed, she ended up near the mirror and barely chanced a glance at her reflection, heading for the bathroom. Three seconds later, she rushed back in front of the mirror and _screamed. _"What happened to my hair?" she grabbed at the short orange strands, "My body?!" she cupped her small boobs, "and I'm fat!" she pinched herself at the waist. Did the crew encounter someone with de-aging abilities again? She looked like how she was at eighteen!

The last thing she remembered was reaching a new island… The Straw Hat Pirates had bid Trafalgar Law and his crew farewell before continuing on their journey to Raftel, and the New World Log Pose had pointed them towards an Autumn Island. The place looked normal from the ship, not being a spooky place like Thriller Bark, unbearably hot like Alabasta or featuring strange things like living toys in Dressrosa. That disappointed Luffy, she remembered, and Usopp was saying this would be the first Autumn Island in their journey. Hearing this, Luffy's spirits shot up and he launched himself onto the island ahead of the others, wanting to see what was different about an Autumn Island.

The rest of the crew had left him to it, gathering round to sort out who would be going for supplies and who would be staying on the ship. Zoro had automatically been relegated to ship-watching duty because the lazy man hadn't even bothered waking up.

But it didn't take long before Sanji was saying that something was wrong, looking towards the island with a worried face, saying, "Luffy's gone." The rest of the crew had panicked after that, and Nami … Nami remembered she exclaimed, "Who could take out that monster?!" even as inklings of fear and worry started to creep in. The next moment, an invisible pressure weighed down on the Straw Hats and the Thousand Sunny flipped over, dumping its crew straight into cool waters and … Nami remembered nothing else after that.

She stared at her reflection harder but it didn't seem like she was going to change back any time soon, and Nami took in her hotel room instead. She stayed in quite a few over the years and they all boasted the same basic features. Nothing told her anything about where she was. The small bag she used when she was traveling alone came into sight and she couldn't stop herself, "What is this doing here?" She opened the bag and started rifling through it, staring at the money, maps, books, and dagger. These _were_ the things she used to carry around when she was eighteen…

Double-checking the room for any of her belongings, she left the room. Rather than a hotel, the place was closer to being an inn and the friendly innkeeper smiled at her when Nami came down. "Is something wrong? We heard you screaming just now." The rest of the patrons in the first-floor bar paid little attention to their conversation. "Oh no it's fine, just got startled by something."

The innkeeper accepted the explanation and turned away but Nami quickly called him back, "Sorry, what's the name of this island?" The innkeeper frowned at her a little before shaking his head, "Kids these days, don't even have any sense of bearing. It's Orange Town in East Blue."

"Orange Town?!" Nami screamed back at him in surprise. The abrupt rise in volume led the previously friendly innkeeper to curse, "Freaking hell, what's so shocking about that?!" The rest of the patrons grumbled and glared at her. "Hey little girl," one of them suddenly got up and walked towards Nami, grinning rather nastily, "It's not a good idea to go raising your voice and causing trouble in a town like this you know… not with our Captain's fleet arriving soon!"

Apparently the man was some sort of vanguard or scout who chose this moment to announce his presence, "This town now belong to the great pirate Captain Buggy!" Two other men got up to flank the first pirate, and they strode out of the inn, firing guns into the air as they declared Buggy's incoming fleet.

In East Blue, Buggy was a big fish in a small pond and one of the most notorious pirates East Blue citizens dealt with. The mention of his name was enough to start sending everyone into a panic. "BUGGY?!" Screams started in the small inn. The innkeeper hastily paled before he yelled, "Everyone get out of here! I'm locking the place up!" Everyone had heard the story about how he wiped out a whole village for a tiny slight against him.

"AHHHH! I need to get to the shelter!"

"I've heard of Buggy! They say destruction follows him wherever he goes!"

"And he looks like a clown!" Someone else contributed rather uselessly.

Either way, people ran out of the inn heading for their homes, trying to grab whatever they could before doing their best to squeeze into the shelter outside town.

Nami observed this with shock and some déjà vu. Three years ago, Nami had been in Orange Town for no particular reason when Buggy's pirate fleet abruptly claimed the place. She had seen it as a golden opportunity to steal more money, and found out that Buggy had a map of the Grand Line. It took her a few days to plan out the best approach to getting the map and when she finally did, that was when Luffy and Zoro came into the picture.

Things were not making any sense. "Get out of here already!" the innkeeper shooed, and Nami hastily followed the crowd out into the panicking streets.

It was possible that the crew had been subjected to a power similar to Kuma's, and ended up split across the islands once again. But that didn't explain why Nami's appearance had changed, the reappearance of her old bag, and why would a Shichibukai like Buggy leave the Grand Line to claim a valueless place like Orange Town? A sinking suspicion formed in her mind and Nami quickly flicked her eyes about before snatching up a newspaper someone conveniently dropped in that moment.

Ducking into a narrow alley between two buildings, she eyed the date of the newspaper.

A peek under her shirt at the detested tattoo on her arm solidified all her suspicions.

She had somehow travelled back in time.

"Fucking hell," she swore.

Clutching at her head, she tried to calm down. "Okay Nami, don't panic. You've just somehow managed to _TRAVEL BACK IN TIME_," her calm voice somehow transformed into a shriek. She was lucky that the chaos not far from her masked her words. "Sure it doesn't happen everyday but just _don't panic_."

Nami took a deep breath. "_**AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**_ she let out a scream. "How the hell am I supposed to not panic?! Even for our crew's standards this is beyond ridiculous! And impossible?!"

Abruptly switching to anger, she cursed, "It _must_ be that idiot captain of ours! He did something on that island or he attracted another super strong guy with a super weird devil fruit!"

Another thought struck her and she froze, "That means my village…" _is still Arlong's control._ And she herself was technically still a part of Arlong's crew. Shaking herself out of her stupor, she steeled herself. "First things first, I need to find another member of the crew to confirm if I'm the only who's back, and because I need someone to freak out with me over this! So the best candidate is … Usopp!" She knew Zoro would probably still be on that marine base and Luffy probably just set off from his home island. Sanji would be on the Baratie and no one else was in East Blue at this point of time. Usopp was her best bet because she knew exactly where he was since she had already joined the crew at that point.

So the plan would be to steal a boat, avoid the attention of Buggy's crew (she didn't think she could take them alone anyway) and make her way to Syrup Village pronto. She hesitated a little recalling how Buggy had tried to destroy the village, but that only happened because he came into conflict with Luffy (she selectively chose not to remember that everything started because she stole Buggy's map and claimed Luffy was her boss). The village would probably be fine for a couple of days.

Determined, she ran for the pier to look for a suitable boat. If Usopp did remember what was going on, she hoped he wouldn't be making a single step from his village in search of the crew.

* * *

**Usopp**

For his part, Usopp remembered just as much as Nami did, which was the Thousand Sunny overturning and dumping them into the sea. It took half an hour for him to speed through a similarly horrifying sequence of thoughts as Nami, and a few pointed questions to Usopp Pirates had led him to the conclusion that the Straw Hat Pirates had indeed managed to travel back in time. It was better than the conclusion that he had hallucinated everything that had happened and was going insane.

Once he chose to believe that they had traveled back in time, Usopp had spared no time rushing out of his house and straight to Kaya's place. Now, he stood at Kaya's window with a nervous smile on his face as he twitched fearfully every time he thought about how close he was to Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates.

"Usopp-kun? Is there anything wrong?" Kaya asked concernedly. The other teenager was acting rather oddly today, saying very little while looking extremely nervous and wary for some reason. "HAHAHA, is there something wrong? Of course there's nothing wrong, how can anything be wrong? Why, do you feel that something is wrong? But that's impossible, everything's perfectly not wrong!" he babbled mindlessly.

Usopp had learnt his lesson the first time around, and he knew Kaya wouldn't believe him if he told the kind girl that her butler was secretly plotting to murder her for her wealth. Saying anything now would only alert Kuro to that fact that Usopp was on to him, and make it difficult for Usopp to act later on. As it was, Usopp didn't even know if he could take Kuro in a straight fight. While he was no doubt stronger in mind after their travels in the Grand Line, Usopp's physical fitness was pathetically low compared to three years later, and he only had his basic slingshot with him and none of his Pop Greens. And Kuro had been his first encounter with a truly dangerous opponent, and some fears didn't fade easily.

By his estimation, Luffy and the others arrived about a week from now in the original timeline, so there was still some time before Kuro chose to make his move. Usopp had rushed out without thinking this morning, the only thing on his mind being Kaya's safety. Right now, however, it was with a sinking feeling that he recalled that overheard conversation between Kuro and Jango all those years ago. Jango had mentioned something about the Black Cat Pirates landing on the coast for more than a week, hadn't he? That meant the Black Cat Pirates were here already!

He couldn't be the only one who remembered everything so where the hell were the others?! Shouldn't they be speeding their way over to Syrup Village in search of their great and treasured sniper, the most important member of their crew?!

"Miss Kaya," Kuro/Klahadore spoke up as he set a tray of tea and snacks on the table, "Your tea has been prepared." With hardly any warning, Usopp barely managed to duck down in time, tucking himself below the window to avoid notice. "Is there something outside the window?" Kuro frowned at his young lady. "Oh, no Klahadore, I was just admiring the view outside," she laughed a little. Klahadore had always disapproved of Usopp, and she didn't mind a tiny lie to make sure Usopp didn't get caught. Klahadore didn't seem to believe her, however, and said, "That youngster called Usopp is outside the window isn't he?"

"Guards," he called out firmly in a raised voice. "Oh Khaladore, Usopp is only here to visit me!" Kaya said rather anxiously. The jig being up, Usopp popped up from under the window, "HAHAH, it's fine Kaya," he said nervously. "I should be going anyway. Lots to do, lots to do," he continued vaguely. "I'll see you later or tomorrow okay?" and hastily sped off before Kuro could say or do anything. "I'll see you later then Usopp!" Kaya called out in her lovely voice.

Kaya would probably be safe from Kuro for another couple of days … Usopp hoped things would progress at the same pace as last time and the Straw Hats would get here in time. Usopp ran straight for the coast, feeling for and making sure he had his goggles with him. First, he was going to confirm the presence of the Black Cats, and after that … well, he could pray that things didn't start accelerating!

* * *

Afterword: It is possible that everything from Alvida to Morgan to Buggy happened on the same day, but I'm going to assume everything is spaced out. So if the day Luffy sets off is Day 1, I'm going to place the whirlpool and Alvida on Day 2, and Zoro on Day 3. They would meet Nami and Buggy on Day 4 or 5, Uspoo would probably be around Day 7, and actually join on Day 8, reaching the Baratie would be Day 10, and Sanji joins on Day 15 - 17. It's not remotely realistic that Luffy managed to meet a new crew member every day, hence the gap in time. About where they met Buggy, it seems to be a place called Harbor Village in the manga scanlations but One Piece Wiki puts it as Orange Town. I have decided to go with the latter.


End file.
